Amazon opens an “unconnected” and refreshed grocery store in London

Amazon, an online sales company, launches in London on Thursday, for the first time outside the United States, a supermarket that allows you to do your shopping without going to the checkout, which is a new step in the fierce competition with traditional stores.

The Amazon Fresh Store at Ealing Broadway Shopping Center is “the first convenient store in the UK that allows you to do a shopping and then go straight out”. “This is the first physics Amazon store outside the United States,” a statement said. Once customers log in, scan a QR code from their smartphone and then go shopping … and exit directly. No update, but every item taken off the shelves by the customer will be automatically debited from their account through the app on their phone.

The store works with sensors, cameras and “in-depth learning” algorithms (technology that allows a machine to learn automatically, editor’s note), Amazon explains in a promotional video. The store “offers a new selection of branded products offered by Amazon,” including meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, bakery, prepared food and basic necessities.

The store “will be similar to the 20 Amazon Go stores in the US, but will operate under a new brand already used for online groceries in the UK”, and a series of other locations are planned in London. “Consumers in the UK want a more comfortable shopping experience and we hope they appreciate being able to come out with the purchases they need,” said Matt Birch, now former head of Amazon New Stores, a former supermarket manager at Sainsbury’s. Country.

Amazon, which had already been on the rise in the UK before the epidemic and was increasingly competing with a distressing retail sector, has strengthened its position with the epidemic, resulting in the closure of stores that have been established for months. On the street.